“I do think it was curiosity more than anything else that made him join us! Poor fellow! I have had many a heartache for him. He kept on asking us in his smiling way where we were going? What we were going to do?
“But we only laughed and told him to come and see. And his curiosity was worked up to such a high pitch that he did come to see.
“We reached at last a favorable part of the road for our enterprise. Not one of us thought it would end as badly as it did. We only wanted to destroy the wicked old squire’s will.
“We got to the place where we meant to stop the coach.
“It was where the road went down into a deep-wooded hollow. There were thick, heavy woods on each side. It was as dark as pitch.
“We halted and stretched a strong thick rope, three times doubled, across the road, tying the opposite ends to the trunks of trees.
“And then we waited for the coach.
“That poor Joe Wyvil kept on asking us what we were up to.
“And we telling him to wait and see.
“And his curiosity was so intense that he did wait and see, though all the time he kept blaming himself and saying that ‘Lil’ would be looking for him and wondering why he did not come.